INCLUSIVE LIVING LANDSCAPES WITH THRIVING COMMUNITIES

This fact sheet from WWF South Africa describes the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus project, focusing on the use of 'knowledge festivals' and 'community champions' to integrate local decision-making into national frameworks for natural resource management in rural South Africa.

• Knowledge festivals are designed as inclusive events that bridge scientific research with lived experiences and traditional wisdom, using art and participatory methods to make knowledge co-production more engaging.
• A WEF Nexus Knowledge Festival held in March 2024 in Matatiele, Eastern Cape, involved over 200 participants and utilized diverse activities including roundtable discussions, traditional dances, theater performances, poetry, and the co-creation of 'problem-solution trees'.
• The project utilizes 'community champions'—specifically 'Ecochamps' in the Matatiele region—who are local youth with limited education and employment opportunities. Between 2017 and 2025, Environmental and Rural Solutions (ERS) upskilled over 135 of these champions to facilitate communication between traditional leadership, residents, and NGO staff.
• The WEF nexus approach in South Africa reveals that while there has been moderate progress in food and water security, energy security lags significantly. Additionally, policies such as land restitution may improve food access but can potentially negatively impact water and energy resources.
• Governance challenges for the WEF nexus in South Africa include inadequate community participation in decision-making, limited integration of conventional and indigenous governance systems, and insufficient cross-sectoral collaboration.
• To improve WEF governance, the document recommends strengthening local decision-making, expanding social protection, establishing public-private-traditional partnerships, and leveraging transdisciplinary collaboration that centers local knowledge.

APA

WWF South Africa (2025). INCLUSIVE LIVING LANDSCAPES WITH THRIVING COMMUNITIES. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wef-knowledge-festival-factsheet_web.pdf

Chicago

WWF South Africa. INCLUSIVE LIVING LANDSCAPES WITH THRIVING COMMUNITIES. 2025. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wef-knowledge-festival-factsheet_web.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=WWF South Africa |title=INCLUSIVE LIVING LANDSCAPES WITH THRIVING COMMUNITIES |date=2025 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wef-knowledge-festival-factsheet_web.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wwfsouthafrica2025inclusive, author = {{WWF South Africa}}, title = {{INCLUSIVE LIVING LANDSCAPES WITH THRIVING COMMUNITIES}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2025}, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wef-knowledge-festival-factsheet_web.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }